WWW #17: Say My Name

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number.

Hot sun on a bright green court, painted white lines of chalk, illuminating what is otherwise an athletic field.

The buzzing of illusory crickets put here solely for an aesthetic conducive to the study of wizards engaged in military training.

Wooden armory racks with a number of

bright tan polished wooden quarter staves not magical or enchanted simply here for the rudiments of staff combat.

However, the ringing in this grass-filled court is not that of the clack of wood, but the sharp clarion call of steel on steel.

Ursulan,

backward, forward, widened stance.

You hear clang, clang, clang, as three blows come in on top of your raised cross guard and you feel a sudden kick to the inside of your shin as you are dropped to one knee, and Steele puts the point of her blade up against your chin.

Rude.

You haven't the first idea of how rude things can get.

Oh, we're kicking now?

I'm sorry.

Oh, you wanted to learn fencing.

You're a little boy.

You're a prince?

No, I'm not.

No.

Do you want to learn how to fight or do you want to learn how to fence?

What?

I...

Ursula's just going to get up and kind of stop around for a second.

Again.

All right.

All I want you to do is hold me off and keep your stance.

That's it.

The training continues.

The number one thing you notice about fighting Steel in this moment is she's

number one never seems to tire.

And you don't really see

any indication

of

rage or exertion or primal ferocity.

Everything is about control.

Her stance is about control.

She's controlling her breathing.

She is always looking at you.

Your feet, your stance, where your torso is, where your eyes are looking.

Her eyes almost never go to your sword.

She's always just looking at you.

She

does this thing that you've begun to be able to spot after some time, which there's a smile.

And that smile always comes a quarter of a second before you realize that you've made a mistake.

And a quarter of a second after that is when you will either get hit with the flat of her blade or some other terrible thing will happen.

You fight, by the way, with Wavebreaker.

She wants you to fight with the sword you're actually wielding, even though, unlike her sword, its edge is not dulled.

She, at one point, told you in this long month of training:

when we get to the point where I feel that your blows are coming close to actually landing somewhere, I don't want them to land,

then we'll switch to a practice sword for you.

She comes back again.

Go ahead,

roll me an athletics check.

You would be actually, this is acrobatics.

Roll me acrobatics.

Unbelievably, we're level two now, baby.

That's an 18.

Let's go.

She marches you up and down across this circle of the painted lines of the grass.

And every time you see that, like as you're keeping your stance, she goes, Good, excellent.

Don't let me make you leave the circle.

And she now begins to exert and actually call out.

And at a certain point, I'm going to actually ask for a wisdom saving throw.

What?

This is kicking and wisdom saving throws.

It's supposed to be sword practice.

Again, we are no longer level one.

That's a 21.

You stay fully within the circle as she pushes back.

And now she starts to exert.

She just,

and then finally she leaps up in the air higher than you're considering and goes

to bring the sword down in this exclamation.

And the sword

lands lightly on the cross guard

with a dagger pressed up, suddenly appearing in her hand to your ribs.

Where the hell did that come from?

She looks down,

still in stance.

Good job.

You have.

I thought we were fighting with swords, and yet you are kicking.

You are bringing more

weapons than I didn't know.

Can I have another weapon?

Can you?

Not yet, but

I might want one.

Right now, a dagger would be an enormous liability.

You should focus on fighting well with one sword.

Good.

Then I'll do that.

Let's have something to drink.

And you see, as she goes over, there's a cool pitcher of water with some slices of different citrus fruits within it.

She pours a glass for you, handing it to you, and pours one for herself.

You see, she drinks it there and she says,

And you, you still

just want to.

Is there any part of you that wants to focus on being armored or

a shield or anything like that right now?

You seem content for the moment to focus on.

I can have a shield.

Well,

we don't use them here.

I wouldn't be able to train you in how to use a shield.

I need to keep one hand free for spellcasting.

But.

I would like a shield.

Alright.

Yeah, let me see about getting you one.

I don't know where I would get one from, but we can look into it.

I can.

I could make one.

You see,

she says you could make one?

I've seen a shield before.

Can't be that hard.

Well, that's an attitude that is going to fail you over and over again here

at the Citadel.

The assumption that a thing you've seen can't be hard

sort of stands in direct opposition to our entire ethos.

Well, I'm not from the Citadel.

Well, I know it.

Bear of Silbury.

She sits, takes a sort of like downs half the glass of water.

It's hot out right

You know, in the desert beyond, it is unlivably scorching, but here it's just a little bit toasty.

She looks and says,

I hear that Ame's recovery is going very well.

Walking again.

Seems to be doing well, yes.

And

I thought I would just mention to you,

Ursulan, that um

your secret is safe here at the Citadel, though you are far from the only spirit here, and

I can tell from our training that you have come to quite enjoy this place.

Suvi

will be an Archmage of the Citadel one day.

And having an entourage and a protector and a guardian is not a bad thing.

I know you've only been here for a few short weeks, but

does the thought of living a life here at the Citadel

would that be something you would want?

I like it here.

staying places is not something I've ever done,

but I do like it here.

And as long as Suvi and Ahme are here,

I will be here.

Um

that's

that's what I want

if there were

a place that you wanted to go that was not here, do you have any idea where that would be?

I spent many years on a calm,

and the only solace I had there was a summer at Grandmother Wren's cottage.

But

I think it would be foolish to return there, thinking it would be the same.

So,

by my friends, is where I would like to be.

I will

offer this only because I feel that I am duty-bound to do so.

It has come to pass

in the history of the Citadel that we have aided some spirits

trapped within the world of Umora to return

to

the world of our honored friends.

I

do not know

and have not wished to press as to the conditions of your presence in this world, but I do know that Suvi

knows of how you came to be here and was involved in some way in those happenings, though I know they occurred in childhood.

If it is something as simple as

some sorcerer or warlock having captured a talisman of yours that keeps you bound here in this place,

then certainly

there are steps that could be taken to

reverse that.

It's not that simple.

I've

I've tried.

It's something else.

It's not.

It's not that.

I'm.

I don't I don't know.

Well,

what resources I have,

I would be more than happy to extend to you, as someone who matters a great deal to

Suvi.

And if that is a road you ever wish to explore,

I

would

welcome a discussion about

the nature of how you came here and

what you feel

prevents you from returning.

Though I also understand if

after these many long years you wish

to find

joy and home where and how you can,

we should continue training.

I'm going to pick up my chair,

flip it over, cut off the legs.

Again, I have a shield now.

She goes, ah, all right, you've destroyed the chair.

It has been

some time,

perhaps a little less than a week, just a handful of days.

Ame, you are quickly recovering from the month of ill health and being bedridden.

The fox has become in this place of wonders.

He is a little roly-polier.

His fur shines with a luster of being well-fed.

He's got the little sort of like cheek poofs of fur when he gets scratched are always out as he gets scratches whenever he wants.

Uh, he's a big hit with the wizards of the citadel who are unused to seeing a true animal familiar.

Uh, the sort of the homunculuses, automatons, and constructs of wizards are often a little less fuzzy.

But where has your focus been in the days since Amay's waking?

Uh, I have

done so much exploring, you know, as soon as as

I could easily get about by myself,

I was up and about meeting new people, exploring new places, and

inquiring as to,

you know, in my, just incidentally in my travels,

inquiring about certain names that I now remember.

Gramarin, Galt the Artificer, and Sly of the Brooch, Promorai, and Quinn Rothferninisminier.

Although that one is,

I'm not sure.

I, you know, I didn't write anything down.

And

yeah,

I think

I'm able to

much better

ask discreetly and

move about the citadel slightly more discreetly, hopefully with some coaching by Suvi, whom I have told everything that I can remember.

We also have this interesting moment of in the memories shared by Ahme that were retrieved by this, these great witches, warnings of the pilgrim under stars, the man in black.

There's also the reference to the Akadator, a name which Suvi was unfamiliar with.

Many sort of things unfold and unfurl here in this place.

Questions of the indicative reflexive note, of the Accatator, of the accounting of the death of Soft and Stone and of Grandmother Wren's memory of these terms that you had not heard before, Suvi, the League of Whispers, the Akatater.

The, you know, in the days following your night, and believe me, plenty more carousing.

The Citadel has no lack of wonders to behold.

And to Ursulan's sort of point of wondering how long can this last, it seems to have lasted for some great while.

There are 24 floating courts of the Citadel, much to explore.

Uppermost in my mind is the new knowledge that I have a large responsibility, a stewardship.

So I know at some point to check in.

I have to find out as much as I can about that.

I don't know if the Citadel would hold any

scholarly

information regarding witches or their covens.

I don't know how

we don't have books about witches.

How many of them are just like

internal followers?

Witches?

Witches have pointy hats or something.

I don't know.

We have pointy hats just fine ourselves.

The same wizard you keep running around in the street.

Walking away.

Huge conical hat covered in stars and moon.

Absolutely ridiculous.

So that, I definitely want to inquire around as to the friends.

Suddenly, I know I have friends all over the world, all over the citadel.

As we've said before, you know, you guys are in and of this world.

Suvi grew up in the Citadel.

Ah has recovered the memories of training of many, many years.

So

skill checks and questions you would want to ask if you know somebody or have an experience somewhere are absolutely present in this world.

You should never feel that, you know, you can't ask like, have I heard of this or have I met this or do I know this?

Ame, give me a principal investigation check for this time period.

Oh, no.

Investigation.

Sorry.

Oh, that is a nat

20.

Oh, my God.

First crit of this art.

That is the first crit

of this art.

Let's go.

Put it on the board.

I am suddenly

with renewed vigor and the power of and confidence of my training fully behind me and

the name of my best friend on my lips at every door.

I am

just

within, I'd say a week, I just have

people know me around.

I have a great knowledge of

the moving

the ever-moving parts of the citadel.

And you can tell me any other specifics

that I might have stumbled across.

On a nat 20, I'm going to give you all of it.

Yeah!

On a nat 20, you get all of it.

So,

very quickly here, with your sort of knowing that there's this big broad thing, right?

You have become the witch of the world's heart, and you are aware that in knowing it, it is now more true

that basically you are aware what the curse was doing was stopping a coronation.

Does that make sense?

Like, it arrested in this liminal space where for the time that the curse was active on you, there was no witch of the world's heart.

A few days ago, when you woke up, the world once again had a witch of the world's heart.

And you also remember this whole horrifying thing of the fact that the coven of elders has lost seats.

There were once 13 in some mythic age.

So, losing a witch of the world's heart is a possibility.

It's not like these things can't be destroyed or gotten rid of.

And there was a very real chance that this curse could have.

If you had just like lived out your life not knowing that this curse was there, what might have happened.

However, you were at the Citadel because you've never been before.

Even with all of your travels through adolescence with Grandmother Wren, Grandmother Wren never took you here to the Citadel.

And it seemed like Grandmother Wren

knew

wizards, but was not a resource of the Citadel.

And that's a very important thing about Grandmother Wren's relationship.

She knew and liked wizards.

There were individual wizards with which she collaborated.

And the Citadel had an awareness of her institutionally, but it was basically the wizards that she knew and liked that could work with her.

You get this information.

And I think there's like,

weirdly, being here and a guest of the Archmage Apprentice Suvi,

you get to this point of

how

frequently people are willing to offer information.

So you come and ask about things that normally you'd be like, it's going to be caging just here.

They're so happy to share.

You learn that the Artificer Galt works in Haverward at a place called Tilliver Mill, and that

the spirit Pomeroy

works in Zhao Court at a place called the Kassav Collection in Gossamer Plaza.

You see someone you know, sort of talking to you and being like, oh, Sly, yes.

Uh, the Wizard Sly works in Kabani Court.

He is one of the grand diviners, who I believe is the head diviner of the Office of Preemptory Catastrophic Deviation.

That sounds so complicated.

It's kind of, uh, well,

let me talk to the Archmage about.

Amazing.

Thank you, bye.

Suvi, in those couple days, what are you up to?

Uh, Suvi has, now that she sort of said out loud via talking to Silver that she's planning on taking on the name of the third wizard Skye, she must make sure that no one that would ever interact with her would ever doubt that she is deserving of the name.

So she's going over and above with her apprentice duties and spending all of her time doing research, but in a way that appears like she's doing errands and running things for silence.

Hell yeah.

And, you know, waking up early to

and keeping up with her training and trying to be an exemplary wizard.

The Pyrrhean dome alight with green and purple fire.

Its normal,

bright

expanse of interior

made shadowy and arcane, a moment where the clarifying light of the citadel is reduced to be shrouded in mystery as something great and powerful occurs.

Five seats are gathered as the Arch Magi of the Citadel appear.

Silence, smiling,

the Archmage Serenity,

the Archmage Sorrow,

the Archmage Sabre,

and the Archmage Sand.

Robed,

wise,

ancient,

learned beyond description.

Standing off to the flank of the seated Archmagi stands a proud and smiling steel.

Silence speaks.

She who has come forth

to receive a cloak of shadows that might conceal her name,

that she could wield the power of her title and obscure the comings of her character, the origins of of her history, the to and fro of days well spent might be managed behind a word of power.

Sufi,

she is called,

and her name, and you see here he invokes a ringing of a bell,

and whispered under the ringing, you see, just steel says,

Suferin Kenberican.

Speak now

and tell the world

in order and defiance of what may be perceived

what you truly are.

Suvi steps forward

and looks up

and remembers

that the reason

there are only a few names that are almost like titles.

Like something to invoke that when you hear it, you know that is a name that you have read in history again and again.

And it comes with expectation and the weight of it is so heavy.

And the version of the sky that Suvi will claim for her own

is a sky that she saw when she was six years old.

The dead of night,

stars visible,

snow gently falling,

as her world got blown apart.

And she remembered the explosions

of magic she's never seen, anything that big.

And she thought it would destroy everything.

Not just her, but the world itself.

And yet, the sky looked down and held it all

and watched it all and persisted.

That is the sky that she claims.

And without any hesitation,

clear of purpose.

I am the wizard sky.

Wind begins to blow here.

You see

the Archmage Sabre.

Ruddy-faced, badly injured.

A military mage and war mage stands.

What power then?

That that great firmament might rain down?

Weather, thunder, lightning, great powers

to cover all and with its judgment meet out what it sees fit.

You see the Archmage Sand stands.

She

beautiful, high-cheeked,

deep brown skin, tattoos, different glyphs running in tear lines from her eyes.

What cannot be seen.

whose

weightless weight we bear each day upon our shoulders

turns the mountains into dust,

subtlety and the movement in spaces unseen,

the dominion of your title.

The Archmage sorrow stands

deep raven hair,

sallow eyes shouted by the hood of their robes that they leave over their face,

things

eternal

that have been with us since the dawn of time,

wisdom

in the watchfulness

of a constant partner,

ever above,

defined by its distance.

The Archmage Serenity stands.

Short,

plump,

deep hazel eyes and wrinkles of a face that is always smiling.

Long brown curling tresses with golden rings covered in talismans, beads, emeralds, gems,

Movement.

Life.

In a desert

beyond which no growing thing can be seen from our vantage point,

we see the beginnings.

Wisps of vapor that will become storms.

Rain to fall upon forest and field.

A partner in a dance to sustain the world forever.

And you see

your mentor.

The Archmage silence

takes a long moment on old bones to stand,

eyes twinkling, long white beard as his cheeks rise in a smile.

The sky

is not the weather nor the wind.

The sky

holds all things.

Let it be known

that vastness is yours.

The sorrows it will bring you, that you

and your road

are vast and broad and lead to all places.

Many who have destiny curse it,

But what a burden to be able to choose any

path under the sun.

She is called Scott.

Lightning strikes the top of the Erian in cloudless night and across all of the world of Umora.

Every

instance

of the name Suvi

or Suvarin Kedbariket

is stricken and replaced by simply the word sky.

The name

swallowed up by your name cloak

with the exception

of those places in which it was written by one to whom it was given.

A handful of places, a handful of people

that know what you were called before.

I roll

the word sky across my tongue and it feels

mine

and right

and correct.

And even in that moment of joy and exhilaration, I've been looking forward to

having my name since I first began in the Citadel proper.

And yet my mind flashes back to the two moments.

I think first I ran down Ursulon,

probably,

let's be clear, I would have left this to the last possible minute.

Just a few hours ago this morning, looking for you after you finished up your sort of morning training.

Oh,

before I forget, super important.

And fish in my pockets for a loose piece of parchment, something with like a to-do list on it, and taking out a little wizardly quill, writing my first name, and pushing it into your hand, and then just you have to know.

Okay, Subi, but do I need to hold on to it or do I just do I look at it?

It's your name.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's my full first name.

Uh my name is Suvarin.

That is not my full name and it is not my true name.

But it is enough

so that you can call me Subi

after today.

Okay.

Do I need to hold on to it?

Uh, no, it will uh sort of magically vanish in like, oh fuck, I'm running out of time.

In like three hours.

Oh, okay.

I'll keep it close.

Yeah.

Great.

Hey, can I ask you a question?

Yeah.

What do artificers do and could they make a shield?

I know you have a really important thing going on.

No, you're very good.

This is big for me.

This is actually quite good for me.

Thank you.

Okay.

Yeah, an artificer creates magical and complicated non-magical items.

Yes, they can make a shield, but normally they would make a shield with like some stank on it.

Do you need a shield?

I'm just trying to prove steel wrong.

That is both hard to do and I've never been more interested in helping you with anything ever.

Okay, well you go do this seemingly really important thing and I'm gonna hold on to this piece of paper.

Do you need an artificer?

Give me a time on this.

You know what?

You go do your

no, I'm kind of into it.

You sprinted up to be

I'm a little yeah, uh but this feels like a good thing to focus on.

Okay.

I'm very nervous because like what if I get there and they're like, you can't be Sky.

You have to be, like, salamander or something fucking stupid.

I mean, then they're idiots.

Uh, how about this?

First thing tomorrow morning, I will take you to visit a friend of mine that I came up in the citadel with who is a very good artificer.

To make you a shield?

Or do you want to do your thing?

What is this?

I'm going to make a shield.

Oh, you can just do that.

You don't need an artificer.

You just need some wood, I think.

Okay, cool.

Then I'll go get some wood.

What kind of we can get you some?

We can get you wood.

Yeah,

I'll go find wood.

Sure.

I can find wood.

Yeah, okay.

Have a great day.

Okay.

But I'm going to go get wood.

The first option sounded like a lot of fun, and now you're just telling me I need wood.

So I'm going to go get some wood.

No, it's fun.

I feel like I've been a bummer.

No, I could do.

I got you.

You know, we're going to be so shit-faced tonight anyway after

celebrating.

So let's not make any promises about what we're going to do tomorrow.

But

have a good day.

Thank you.

I love you.

Love you.

Cool.

Dead spray.

Off to go find Ame.

You go and find Ame, who's busy sort of gathering intel about different old friends and contacts at the Citadel.

Hey, what you doing?

Oh, hi.

Hello.

Hello.

Nothing.

Hi.

Uh,

when's the ceremony?

Uh, where should we go?

Oh, oh, um, it's in a couple hours.

It's not really like a public thing.

Oh, just it's just a couple.

Okay, we won't tell anyone that.

Oh,

that's very sweet.

I don't think, I think it's gonna be like seven people max, me inclusive.

Okay, okay.

Uh,

are you trying to say

that we aren't gonna be there?

I am so happy you're here, and I want to share all of my life with you, but not this thing.

Not this thing.

It's not a thing.

I'm so stressed out.

Like, how do I tell?

Oh, God, how do I tell how many kids?

You're gonna be great.

Okay, you

have earned this.

Oh,

you are exceptional, and I'm so excited for this.

Just being nice.

You're being nice.

Do I look stressed?

Are you just comforting me because I look stressed?

Well, yeah, but I'm always nice.

And always,

I mean it, you know?

Thank you.

Hey, it's no

Witch of the world's heart.

Yeah.

Witch of the world's heart.

That's very cool.

Yeah.

Are you?

Does that make you feel weird?

Like having a title?

No, because the title doesn't mean so much as the fact that all the responsibilities that go along with it are

overwhelming at the moment.

But I'm handling it.

Gathering things, see me tell.

Do you need anything I can?

Oh, yeah.

I mean, you've already been so helpful.

And,

you know, honestly,

being able to say, do you know who my friend is?

is

an absolute boon to this expedition.

But yeah, I mean,

I have

a lot left to do, and I would welcome your help on this.

I should

do this.

But for right now, today's your day.

Thanks.

Really, anything I can help with, I can just please.

I'll ask.

Okay.

I have to give you a little chunk of my name.

Oh.

So you can continue calling me Susie.

Right, yes.

Is that okay?

Okay.

I don't want.

Oh.

Go on.

Um,

hold on.

Uh, and I'm gonna go.

Where are we right now?

Uh, we are uh

at the cafe uh at the uh candle candle street candle street.

Yeah.

Candle Street Bakery.

Then I'm going to kind of lead you outside to like the little corner because no one really sits in the front.

You have other tables there.

And I'll pull out my quill and take your hand if you allow it.

And write Suverin on your hand.

But I just want to meet my forehead with yours.

Just tell you,

my name is Suverin.

That's part of it.

And

you,

when we first met, you were so kind and never asked me

about the night that I showed up at Grandmother Red's.

Yeah.

But I think part of knowing my true name is knowing that night.

And I'll just describe the sky, which is all I looked up to when I looked out of my mother's cloak as we fled.

That sky's part of it, too.

That night

and the day we met Ursulan

contain everything in this world I seek to protect.

All below one big sky.

Anyway, that's very heavy for

when is it's the I

thank you, you don't need to apologize for anything ever.

I don't know if that's true.

Yeah, that's true sometimes.

Yeah,

I appreciate you saying

I lick my hand.

I start licking my hand.

What are you doing?

You have to eat your name.

Oh, medical.

Fox cleans up and gets one good lick.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Wow.

Oh.

That doesn't taste like uh

there's nothing salty about that.

That's just sour

salt salty.

I thought that was blood.

What is that?

Ink is ink

squid ink.

Oh, no

No, it's kind of just a plant.

Okay,

thanks.

Does that mean that he gets oh that he gets part of it too?

No

go get him.

I love you.

I love you too.

I'll see you on the other side of this.

Hey, yeah.

Okay, we're getting drunk tonight, so prepare accordingly.

Oh, I'm prepared.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, dead sprint away.

Outside of the dome at the center of Malachan's court, Steele embraces you.

I'm so proud.

Wizard Sky.

Now, can I say?

Huge fan of your work.

I mean, in previous lives and incarnations.

But, you know, this one's, I bet, gonna put the rest...

I heard it here first.

This one's gonna put the rest to shame.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It feels good.

It feels heavy.

I don't fit it yet, but I think I will.

People get

wizardry.

How many?

What year is it?

It's 1670.

First College of Summoners was 1440.

I think the term lingua arcana was coined like a hundred years before.

Wizardry's new.

It's very, very new.

All of this is new.

The lingua arcana, the citadel.

It's good to take on heavy mantles.

We're all a team.

We're all working together to do something that's never been done before.

Exciting.

Yeah.

Thank you again

for everything.

I know I've said it before, but

you didn't have to be a mother to me, and

you have been, and I don't know where I would be without you.

She embraces you, familiar feeling of her armor, which is always here in these official capacities.

If anyone ever has to do anything,

I had to be your mother.

I will be worthy of the time and care you put into me.

I promise.

Promise is the first made by the third wizard sky.

Precious, indeed.

You have my promise as well.

I will do everything I can to be worthy of the devotion you have shown to this place.

And the memory of

the memory of those who have come before.

Now I know that a certain young war mage has rented out the back room at Grim Hall.

So.

Yes, I do have to go.

But in the morning, I would love

to talk

full-ass wizard to full-ass wizard.

Yeah.

We're the same now.

We're exactly the same now.

All right.

We are peers.

That's worse for you than I quit.

I renounced the citizen in entirety.

Correct.

And I forsake your magic forevermore.

And I would

love to learn

at least a bit of my parents' names.

Tomorrow.

We'll go see them.

I know where they're written down.

Thank you.

In the court of Gavril, which is a military, it is sort of like brutalist architecture, intense,

like concrete slabs of stone, square buildings, square windows, lots of big plazas, courts, marching.

There is an entire neighborhood

in Gavril, which is a bombed out area for war games.

Just straight up come here, simulate combat.

Fuck you.

Grimm Hall is

white,

white gravel, massive long tables, beer garden.

This huge, you see there's big hanging buckets of flowers around and strings of lights.

Uh, there's like singing from inside, and there's all these imperial war wizards.

This is like where the returning heroes go after they get home.

Silver, a returning war hero, uh, has taken liberty knowing the owner.

Where do we find Ursulan and Ame as Suvi arrives?

Ame greets Suvi with Ursulan helping her hold a ginormous cake.

It is midnight blue, and the bottom tier has light periwinkle candy floss like floating gently around it.

There's floating celestial bodies like hovering over the top of the cake, rotating in orbit.

There's sparkling stars that shimmer down on the front, on the top of the cake and around the different bodies.

And then there's sparkling letters above it that say sky exclamation mark.

And I think we baked you a cake.

Mostly me.

I did most of the work.

Ursulan did so much of the work.

So much of it, especially the sparkles.

Ame, brother, thank you very much.

Special place in sky.

Sky, it's that

smooth red chocolatey

kind that you like on the inside.

You're perfect.

You guys see, Ame and Ursulan,

as Suvi's on her way, if you test out, when you say sky intentionally, it feels totally normal.

If you refer to her, the sky feels totally normal.

But you have this moment of, if you say Suvi, you still hear it.

Suvi.

It feels totally fine.

It feels normal.

You say the word Suvi.

But in saying it to each other, you notice people around you, like, some of them look up.

Like, when you say something about, oh, they're talking about the sky, and they'll look up at the sky for a second.

When you're saying Suvi, so you are aware, even though you can't feel any difference, you know anything, you know that other people are hearing sky around you.

Hey, hey, silver, yeah, why is a sousie blue?

Uh, well, it reflects, well, it's actually about the column

that

I assume you don't know, so I'm explaining why you're laughing at me and trying to explain.

No, it's it's a it's witch humor,

okay.

You see a bunch of

steins of foamy beer are like raised around.

You see Silver says, to the one and only Wizard Sky.

What was she called before?

We don't know.

Do we care?

No, we don't.

Sky forever.

Sky today.

And tankards go back and people cheer and clap you on the back.

As this at this big sort of coming of age,

you guys sit here drinking.

There's like you see big platters of

sausage, and there's like fried vegetables and fried potato, things with sort of like breaded carrots and cauliflower and things that have been deep-fried and are brought out.

Big things of beer.

This is sort of a raucous place.

It's not anything like Haverward, but you can see that one of these sort of appeals of this beer garden is that that people, the tables are kind of narrow and it allows people to get drunk while doing what wizards love to do, which is argue and hector at each other.

So there's a lot, you can see immediately people are getting involved in theory.

You see someone going,

you see, there's down the table from you, there's a couple wizards.

One of them just says, it's not a school.

And if everyone goes, boo!

Like,

not a school of magic.

It's a catch-all

for unlikable magic.

Name an effect of necromancy, not more clearly, categorically appropriate in the schools of evocation, conjure.

And you see, everyone says, like, if you're going to go to there, say that, what part of the school of illusion is not simply the summoning or evoke?

And everyone starts yelling.

And you see someone else sort of pipes up and goes like, categorically, I think that the utility of the categories is their justification.

And you see they get pelted with with a fried piece of cauliflower.

Yeah, I threw the cauliflower on that one.

You see,

as you're looking around at this place, Silver comes over and actually publicly leans down and kisses you on the head, puts an arm around you and says, You're right, you want another stein?

Oh, yeah, yes, please, thank you.

Uh, you see, walks off to go get another stein of beer.

Um,

and

looking so spug,

just

yeah,

uh, you see, kissing in public.

It's that means something, right?

Yeah, what it is.

Yeah, it means that, like, you're the popular girl and everything, and he has to stake his claim.

Oh, so we see this as a bad thing.

No, stop it.

You're...

No, stop it.

Are you...

Is that what's happening?

I mean, it's definitely a move.

I mean, I won't lie.

I did see those two over there start talking about it.

You know, in that way, that you know.

Yeah, they talk about everything.

Good, let them talk.

Wait, Amy, do you think- stop it.

Stop it.

Are you...

You've put doubt in my brain.

What?

I'm going to fight you.

What?

Go on.

Fight me.

No.

It's a party.

You see a couple wizards come over to say their congratulations.

There's a very cute young woman named Sunder who comes over.

You see, she says, I want to say again,

I...

I wish I'd put any kind of money down on you taking the sky.

I've known that you were going to be the next wizard sky since we were back at Billings, I want to say.

Oh my god.

A long time.

So, who is this Wizard Sky?

Who's like the second and first Wizard Sky?

Oh, so the First Wizard Sky was kind of part of the founding of the Citadel.

You know.

And

do you know kind of how the desert was made?

Yeah.

Y'all.

We're just gonna fuck with forbidden magics.

Yeah, okay.

You know what?

Boom.

I'm not gonna argue.

Forest becomes sand.

Sure.

One of the wizards that was part of Forrest becoming sand was the first wizards guy.

Okay.

Okay.

Judgment.

No.

Refill your drink.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Keep drinking and then be on my side on this.

And I refill.

I think I've just grabbed someone else's dine that's busy arguing, and I'm just pouring it in the middle of the day.

You see that

this sort of

very like malnourished, injured-looking war wizard, sickle, you refill and says, Oh, thank you, love.

That's very nice.

You think you appreciate it?

Oh, yeah.

Turns over and says, With the new wizard sky, they should give you a place of honor at the bicentennial later this year.

200 years since the creation of the citadel.

Let's go.

Oh, 200 years?

How old?

Oh, old.

You can't add anything to a wit.

Amate's going to live to be like 400.

So, yeah, you know, it's fine.

You see that Sickle turns over and talks to Sunder a little bit.

And you see, she kind of like chuckles under her breath for a moment as they both look over at Ursulan.

I've requisitioned one of these full table platters for myself.

Just picking.

There's just a vegetable.

No.

There's a huge plate, and they've put toothpicks in all of these little chopped-up sausages that are all ever so.

They're basically the same sausage, but there's slight variations.

And a giant bowl of mustard and parsley in the middle.

Yeah.

Just slowly, one by one.

Just a full mountain of toothpicks is just appearing next to Ursulon.

Oh, that's good.

You see, Sickle,

you can see Sickle turn to Sunder and just go, like, it's interesting.

I still remember that his name is Bear.

You see, Sundra Sundra says,

I don't think his appellation will be changing anytime nearby.

You hear Sickle sort of go like, did I even...

There's got to be some wizards outside of the citadel.

Sundra goes, well, I'm sure there are some outside of...

I mean, there's hedge mages, but,

you know, who knows what some wizards get up to outside of the citadel.

Sickle looks back over at Ursalon again and just goes like,

I guess it better he be here than gallivanting around, you know.

Gotta keep the family legacy all in one place, I suppose.

I have to go to the bathroom.

And all of the control in my little body is being used to let them talk shit about this

and not fight them in the area.

Built for fighting.

I have to go.

Do you have to go to the bathroom, Army?

I also have to go to the bathrooms.

Sky.

So all I can say is

come on.

Come on, Jay.

Mother fucking ass, piss ass, shitty little wizard.

He comes back basically dead, and he's going to talk shit about Ursula.

Could you imagine the fucking gall?

And on my day, I had a blast.

Oh,

if I didn't have...

Today's my day, and I'm not going to cry, and I'm not going to fight.

And that's going to be a first.

Like, also your lipstick looks so good.

Thank you so much.

Oh my gosh.

You're being very nice.

Oh, yeah.

Kill them.

Oh,

I mean, it's your party, you know?

It's a party.

You guys, there's a latrine that, you guys are in the latrine of the beer garden of Grim Hall.

And there's sort of a faucet that is

leaking.

as you have this little thing here and you see that it stops leaking.

Suddenly, you know, as you're sitting here, you just, the drip stops.

The fuck?

Did you do that?

Mm-hmm.

The drip.

Did you do that?

What?

Did you?

Oh, yeah.

I, um, it's a red dress that I kind of made myself.

Are you drunk?

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Oh, okay.

Uh, hold on.

This was dripping, and you didn't interact with it.

And I didn't interact with it.

What's going on here?

Can I detect magic on the...

God, is that a useful thing to do in a place this magical it's gonna it's gonna be overwhelming yeah am i gonna uh yeah i'm gonna give myself a stroke right now do you cast detect magic sure what does it look like as suvy cast detect mad just across her eyes which are normally brown but have this sort of like teal cast to them uh you see just a quick rune drawn across her iris and pupil uh

there's no like burst of a burst of light, but like as it dims down, I think this sort of HUD of magic

comes over Subi's eyes.

So it's a very subtle thing because this is easy ritual magic.

The latrine has two small wash basins in it with two little copper pipes with sort of like a screw valve faucet on top that comes out into this place.

And you see that there are two toilets and stalls behind you here

in this little latrine that smells, you know, not great.

It's like, and it has sort of, it's mainly the overpowering, like, Gavriel is a very brusque of the citadel, very military, very Spartan.

But it's still wizards who can change the world to their liking.

So the latrines reek of the stench of whatever they did to make it not smell like a latrine.

It's like a blast of some kind of

antiseptic bubblegum smell.

Just, whoo, it's artificial.

The idea of like a wizard, like a soldier wizard who only casts fireballs being like permanent illusion smell, blam, and like whatever that, whatever that asshole wizard thinks would smell better than piss for the next hundred years is what this latrine smells like.

Um,

you look

a small icicle is forming

in the faucet.

Oh, that's not normal.

That is not normal.

No.

Is uh with tech magic up, do I see

what

is the effect happening?

Is it a spell effect that this is catching a little bit of a vibe off of, or something specifically enchanted?

Uh, something is happening.

Uh, there is, you, you see only with this divination, invisible to the naked eye, a beam of light coming in in the sort of

in the

sloped ceiling of the latrine at the back of this beer garden, there's a small glass window, like a skylight, that has a little crank that can be used to open it.

You look up wizard sky and see the stars, and there is a beam of light coming in from the stars that you recognize as a scrying,

and the scrying has frozen the faucet.

This, you don't see any arcane mark you recognize as somebody is spying in the bathroom of a beer garden?

Interesting.

I'm just gonna grab Ahme's hand and give it a little squeeze.

And then move over to go wash.

I just want I want more sound in this place.

And I'm gonna wash my hands with the faucet and be like, we're being scried on right now.

And that's either a friend of ours being a pervert or

a friend out there that wants a little extra gossip.

And I don't know what to do because I'm really feeling kind of fighty right now.

Thoughts?

Vibes?

Feelings?

Oh my god.

You both hear a

tap, tap, tap, tap, tap on the window.

Up on the roof.

I go over to the I go over the window.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You get boosted up, crawling suddenly over the glass.

Each about four inches tall, you see a spindly white little thing.

Long wings of icy crystal, like the geometric patterns of a snowflake.

A single slit of an eye, wide mouths full of sharp teeth.

Two little fairies that, as you put your face to the glass, go.

Fairies?

Fairies?

Ice fairies?

What do I know?

What do I know?

Give me a...

Give me a nature check.

13.

You know.

These look like weird little nasty sylvan things.

They're clearly like frost or or ice fairies of some kind.

They're They're little spirits.

You

there are lots of spirits in the citadel, but these don't look like any that Suvi recognizes either.

What the fuck?

Kill it.

Kill it.

Catch it.

Sorry, don't kill it.

Catch it.

Catch it.

Do something.

The fairies skitter over the glass as both of you reel back, figuring out what to do.

Ame, you are very inebriated.

Suvi, you are still figuring out if this is a prank or someone fucking with you on the day of your name cloaking.

And you both reel back as a fairy skidders into the center of the pane of glass, goes,

cocks back a sharp pointed finger, and stabs into the center of the pane of glass as we cut from that scene.

Ursulan, you are out at the table.

You see the fox is sort of nuzzling around at your plate of sausage, going,

Okay, fennel.

This one, a little bit of rosemary.

Yes, I tasted that as well.

And this one over here, there's definitely.

This is just, I think this is just chilies.

This is a, it's just red or green?

Uh, one of them has both.

This one is just red chilies, but there's also something, well, that's mango.

Oh, my man.

You're getting better.

It's nice.

It's nice.

I mean, I've always known that all of these things were different, but I just didn't know.

You know, I feel like when Ame,

you know, the boss gave me the power to speak, I knew like most of the words right away,

but it's still so funny to be like, oh, I knew this idea, but there's a sound that goes with it.

I don't know.

It just feels like I was.

It feels like I was given all this stuff, but it was all in

bags.

Ooh, this is like a poem.

Am I doing a poem like that?

You're doing a poem.

What?

It's like it was...

It's like they were in bags and boxes, and I'm like taking them out.

That's not what's happening, but it's like what's happening.

So you're asking, because you've said it in that way, did you do a poem?

Is that a poem?

No.

I mean, it could be.

There's a lot of...

I mean...

I hadn't heard a lot of poetry.

A lot of the poetry I heard before I came to the Citadel, a lot of work,

rhyme schemes.

There's cadence and those sorts of things.

I used to perform, actually.

I was, you know, an actor for a time.

That's when we found you.

Yes, exactly.

Did you miss it?

Sometimes.

I mean, it was fun to be on a stage, you know.

It's just every eye on me.

You know, I didn't do much.

Most of my lines were grunts and noises, but it was fun at times.

Do you think I could be an actor?

Yeah.

I think you could be.

I think you'd be great at it.

I do.

Um,

well, I mean, you need a stage, and you'd need a

story that you want to tell

in that form of performance.

What's the story?

What do you mean, isn't anything a story?

Well, I mean,

don't.

See, you're doing this thing again.

Yes, but you have to take, you have to take the time to kind of, what is the beginning, what is the middle, what is the end.

And that's, you know, that's what you're trying to communicate while you're on stage.

But the end's just where you stop.

Yes, exactly.

And the beginning's where you start?

Yes.

And the middle's what's in between?

Yes.

So, isn't everything a story?

See, what do you mean when you say everything?

That's where I'm confused.

Tell me something.

I'm on your side.

Okay.

What do you want me to do?

I'm not being antagonistic.

No, and neither am I.

Why are we in an argument?

It feels we have that energy going.

As you guys talk over this piece of process,

you

see

a

there is a young woman who enters the beer garden

who is glowing

ever so softly.

She radiates kind of a warm teal blue light.

You see that she is dressed a little bit anachronistically.

She has like a tabbo with bright gold thread in it.

She walks with high boots, no robes.

She has a long sword at her side and a shield on her back.

There are other people.

Ursulan immediately looks to the other people in the crowd to see if they are looking at her suspiciously or strangely, or if this is just another one of those Citadel moments where somebody weird walks into a space and I want to freak out, but everyone else is going, mm-hmm, good to see you.

Give me an insight check.

Overheard in the Citadel.

Natural 20.

Yeah!

I've been here for a month.

You've been here for a month.

You recognize her as Tamori as she she walks in.

She steps in briefly, sort of looking side to side, and you see that she has like soft, a soft face, these teal blue features, very wide eyes, like the eyes of you know, she has big eyes,

and a sort of

a hint of powder blue, but mostly a

kind of illuminated white hair sort of that

is kept short, but floats as though underwater or a little bit weightless.

She walks in and looks sort of around in a couple different directions, and not finding what she was looking for, she turns around to leave.

But on a nap 20, I'll say before she goes, you see, she makes eye contact with you, sees the sword at your side, and salutes.

I

very timidly bring

like nervous that I'm doing doing something wrong, but uh, just I do it back.

She smiles, thinks for a moment, and walks up to you.

You see, she says, um,

hi, I, uh, I'm, I'm so sorry to bother you.

You're not a wizard.

No, I'm the protector of the wizard sky.

Got it.

Um, okay.

You can call me Bear.

Oh, Bear, very nice to meet you.

I'm uh Adina.

Adina.

Um, A-A-D-I-N-A.

Thank you for spelling it.

Uh, no, that's okay.

Uh, but it was, it was written before it was ever said out loud.

So,

but, um,

uh, have you,

um,

have you seen the Archmage Sabre?

No, I can't say that I've been mostly cavorting with my

the person that I protect.

Well, I'm the defender of the Archmage Saber,

and

I know where he is.

Thank you.

And you see,

she

okay, this is some hot gossip.

Fox, this is some hot gossip.

What do you mean hot gossip?

It's hot gossip.

Don't touch it.

No, it's not.

It's not actual hot.

It's hot in that it's fresh.

And Suvie said if I ever heard hot gossip, I'm supposed to find her and tell her immediately.

Okay.

Okay.

I have to defend her life and tell her any hot gossip that I hear.

Great, great, great.

Okay, cool.

Let's go.

She's probably with Ahmed, and I know where Ahme is.

Okay, then take us there.

All right, let's finish these sausages and then we'll go.

Come on, I'll bring the sausage

and we'll go right now.

All right, see, you get the flattery.

You guys head off together.

So,

inside of the latrine,

as the glass, the glass shatters

just as Ursula and the fox come through the door.

Glass all up in the sausages.

No!

No!

Says the fox.

And the fairies

flip in.

Ursulan, the door is partially cracked open.

Do you stay in the doorway as you see these two fairies

as opposed to close it behind you?

Close it behind you.

No, I think I leave it open.

All right, so

you see that the fairies come and land.

First of all,

everyone make a dexterity saving throw for me right away.

13 for Ursulan, 22 for Suvi.

Jesus Christ.

18 for Amy.

Everybody makes it except for the fox.

So as the fairies come to the room, the temperature drops 40 degrees.

Just whoosh, as they enter, it is suddenly freezing cold and the wet tiled ground of this latrine freezes over and the fox just running in here after the sausages skids bam underneath one of the like raised doors of the stall and slides into the toilet and goes,

and I do think the sausages go flying as Ursula stabilizes himself.

As you stabilize yourself, sausage, glass, platter on the ground,

you see that

one of the fairies lands on the faucet and just grabs it and blows into the tube.

And you can hear like a cracking in the wall.

And the other one lands on the lip of a sink

and crosses its little hands behind its back and stands at attention and folds its wings and looks out with this little single eye in its head

and looks and says,

Behold thus the wisdom of the world's heart.

That's you.

That's me.

Be this your sanctum.

I

uh

who's asking

Herald am I from most

auspicious witch of the wind and stars

Oh the one in the in the crystal

god can I have a minute to

uh

how would

please can I just have just give me give me two minutes be this the castle of the witch of the world's heart.

No, it's a bathroom

Do you what don't like fairies need to shit to yeah, do you butthole you see that this one its wings

It puts its ankles behind its head and shows you a perfectly smooth crotch

Ursulan is gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna guard the door.

Step outside and close it slowly behind me.

You see the little fairy showing its completely featureless crotch goes...

You can't see from this fucking intense gaze.

It says, do you not retreat from your own kin?

Spirit?

Wild one?

Alright.

I've wanted to begin with a lot of spirits.

I'm gonna pass on this one.

Because, Suvi, I've got hot gas when you're ready.

Great.

you see that the other one not touching the faucet says, coward is he, long way shocking.

Okay, all right.

All right, all right.

That one gets bitten in half by the fox.

Oh!

Yeah!

Oh, oh, it's just ice.

It's just ice.

You see that this little mangled fairy goes,

starts to put itself back together as the other one just uncoils itself, standing once again on the edge of the sink.

Hello, I am Amy, Witch of Toma and the Witch of the World's Heart.

Please excuse us.

We are in the midst of celebration of my dear friend, and

we're not

properly prepared to receive

you or

Her Grace.

Oh my god, that one's missing.

How long have we been talking?

I don't know.

We extend the full hospitality

to you

and to your mistress.

If she would like to join our party

in the lodge.

Mm-hmm.

You wish for me to tell my mistress to join you here?

Is this your castle?

No, no, no, no.

Does she have to?

Um, I can go to her long lancing spells and vexing hexes of old were made many to pierce and plunder through the guises and guile of wizards.

Many

she has seen into this hidden place through crystal and through cause.

I'm so drunk.

What is happening?

We cut outside from this, and you see Sickle walks up to you, Ursula, and says, John, take a piece.

Sorry, someone's having sex in there.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Oh, no.

Is there another one you can use?

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

See, the fox, who's been sort of chastised, goes up to the door, hearing Ursulan's muttering, and you see the fox just goes, oh, put your mouth on my butt.

And so, as you can tell, it's not Sufi having sex, but someone is having sex today.

I'm waiting, too.

Squeeze every part of my body with your hands.

I know something tells me it's there.

It sounds like they are right at the top, and it's going to be long.

So I think it

sickle backs away and says, I recognize that fox's voice.

And you see, he walks away.

You see, the fairy looks again at its little mangled brethren who's like stitching itself back together.

And the fairy just turns and says, Many missives left at the threshold for the watcher of the shrine and the tender of the stream.

He of the Great Bowl.

Mr.

Soup?

He is called Mr.

Soup.

And we have left many missives saying that

the stars have aligned and a new witch of the world's heart draws breath and with clear eyes speaks for those things

at the joining of hands and the smiling of kin rekindled.

May you then be said to walk upon this world once more?

My mistress, many missives she has left before needing to search for

the witch of the world's heart long leaving from her home.

Uh

boy, it was what, three months?

Yes, judgmental judgmental.

It's been like three months.

Yeah.

Oh, um

my deepest apologies to your mistress.

Uh, please, uh, uh uh send my regards and uh uh have but newly arrived into my powers and knowledge and uh

um

that uh we we can meet uh uh when

and

aware of her choosing

yes, yes, yes.

Uh, you see, uh, you see, the

I'm so sorry, the little fairy looks at you and says,

What point then of conclave would you ask?

Ah,

uh,

what did she mention anything anywhere she was thinking about

I speak only for the mistress of most gifts capable of piercing the protections of this place but should you wish it I can ask her where she would hold this conclave yes yes actually yes that's such a good idea please um um uh return to your mistress with uh my my thanks for her diligence and i

uh

ask her where she would see fit that we be met

i would tell her of your deference to her wishes yes that this conclave might be put upon such a place of her preference

but uh

definitely let her know uh uh please belay back to your mistress that uh the uh well of the um

the

grove the well the grove of the grove of the well uh is perhaps no longer as sacred a sanctum as we have been led to believe.

As uh Grandma Ren Grandma Ren had also

uh met with uh um

uh

Grandma Realm was attacked there.

I shall bear this news hither that the groove of the well

is no longer safe and that the witch of the world's heart hides by the side of the wizard's sky in a bathroom covered in sausages.

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, hold on, hold on, hold on, okay.

What is it?

Earmus, will you, okay, you earmust, you earmus.

You see, it rips its head off its neck.

Fine, that'll do.

Okay,

we can let uh injury injury, she picks the location.

You pick the time.

You have to maintain some like status.

Like, you're, okay, you're the witch of the world's heart.

Yeah, but.

You don't defer to fucking anyone.

Yeah, no, I don't understand.

You're so powerful.

You don't defer to fucking anyone.

Yeah, you're so fucking powerful.

Your fox ate that one.

I am.

A little bit.

The witch of the world's heart.

Yeah.

Baby.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

And I gesture at him to.

Puts its head back on its neck.

The other fairy's finished fixing itself now and it's like sniffing around and looking for sausages to grab off the floor, flitting around as the fox is like, Oh, yeah, do that with your the rest of your face.

Uh, yes, uh, please, uh, with all due haste, uh, speed to your mistress and uh tell her I defer to her in the place where we be met, uh, but that when uh she hath uh picketh it, that

she

I

I pick

that I

find when,

when we shall be met.

Also, also,

what is it?

And I lean down to him a little bit.

What is it gonna take for

you to not mention the part about us being in the latrine?

Give me a name.

Um.

Ah, is my name!

I see!

Ah is my name!

And he explodes in a burst of ice, and the other fairy turns around and says, Huh!

Oh no!

Uh, okay.

It says, Um, you cut.

What did you think just happened?

Because we know, but what do you think just happened?

Give me a name!

After you tell us what just happened.

I don't know.

I'm the stupid one.

Damn it.

Did did that one tell did um tell you that?

What?

Did um tell you that you were the stupid one?

No, it's evident.

I can't follow your directions.

See, the fox looks at you, um, goes, Alright, you know what?

I'm just.

But it's hard to find good help.

I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna write

a note that you can take.

I'll take this to a bathroom filled with sausages.

Perfect.

I want to keep this one.

Is that weird?

No.

Can you be mine?

They're delightful.

If I give you a name, do you belong to me?

No, I think I'll explode.

If you make that the bargain.

Bargain?

I would trade you my service for a name.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Okay, okay, okay, all right, all right.

I want it.

No, hear me out.

I want it.

We'll get you another

spirit to make a deal with that is not, you know.

The fox looks up at you and says,

you can do better.

The first thing this little freaky bug did was tell you that it's the stupid one.

Yeah.

And that it can't follow direction.

Okay.

Yeah.

Suvi's decided to take that too personally and is now beginning to cry, but about silver and a different thing.

So good luck.

No, it's fine.

Even your familiar nose, like, you better.

Yeah, no, it's absolutely true.

You see the fox.

The fox leaps up onto your shoulders, Suvi, and licks at your cheek.

Says, hey, it's your big day.

Do you want...

Do you want a friend and a helper like I am for Ahmed?

I mean, yeah, it's so nice.

You have such a good relationship.

Yeah, yeah, we do.

It's great.

That's making me cry more.

Why?

Why is a nice thing for me making you cry more?

I'm having a.

Today is a thing about me, so I'm struggling.

I don't get that.

Hey, banging on the door.

Can we finish with the sex stuff in there?

The sex?

Oh, yeah.

I'm about to not want to do this anymore.

Yeah, that's that all.

Okay.

Watching the window.

Indra, which are the window

stars.

My deepest

police

for

not

reaching

out

sooner.

As Amay is writing that message, we cut back outside.

Ursulan, you see that a couple other wizards at the table are looking over at you standing in front of the the bathroom.

You see, Silver walks over to you and goes, Uh, Bear, is everything all right in there?

Yeah,

it's just

some people

have decided to make the bathroom

their bedroom.

Oh,

if you, but I saw Suvi and Amay go in there, too.

Yes, and they, um,

they are

it's complete.

It's

oh, okay.

No, no, hey, you're gonna get me in trouble.

No, it, no, it's all right.

I mean, we don't

know, we never made it.

But it's they, it's, they're not the ones having the um relations.

Wait, so they're in there?

Who's having the relations?

It's the fox,

Amay's fox,

and uh,

uh,

a stuffed animal that Suvi bought.

Uh,

And the fox was just being really rowdy outside, you see.

And so they were like, Sorry, so Suvi and Ame are in the bathroom while the fox is simulating intercourse on a stuffed animal to kind of calm him down so that he can be more approachable.

You see, Silver turns around to walk back to the table, and halfway there, just peels off for the exit.

No!

Peels off.

Shit.

Shit.

We cut, we cut back inside.

Uh best wishes.

Uh oh may

uh

which of the worlds

are

all quite

I just I didn't have all of the information that I needed and uh is it is it okay?

I you see uh as the little the little like frost fairy takes it and says

of the wind and stars my deepest apologies for not reaching out sooner.

I am but newly possessed of my title and four responsibilities due to unfortunate circumstances.

I would be deeply honored to meet with you at a safe location of your choosing best wishes.

I'm a witch of the world's heart.

Oh, because you can read.

You see the clocks goes, this guy can read and I can't read.

That's what I'm saying.

It's uh

I'm you know.

Okay, okay, I'm just gonna here's the message.

Goodbye forever.

When you see flies out the windows.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

What happened?

Why are you crying?

Oh,

I just, I just am getting it all together.

Oh, you're doing great.

Oh, you're doing great.

No, you're doing so good.

Blake of fairies came in and you just, you handled it so good.

I'm gonna open the door.

And

we're holding hands and just

Subi.

I think Silver thinks that you and Ahme are fucking

sorry.

Why?

Oh, God.

Fuck.

Or that the fox is having intercourse with a stuffed animal.

I'm sorry.

Oh, I'm sorry, Fox.

I'm gonna go.

I'm gonna go.

I'm gonna go.

Are you good?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You go, you go.

Yeah.

Uh, happy

name cloak day.

Thank you.

Suvi.

Yeah.

Oh, the gods.

Oh,

the Archmage Sabre is maybe missing.

What?

I don't know which one of those things is a bigger deal.

Oh, my God.

Oh, God.

Sober.

But

a Tamori named Adina, spelled A-D-I-N-A.

Yes, she spelled it for me.

She came by looking for the Archmage Sabre and then said that she couldn't find him, but then said that she knows where he was, but that seemed to be kind of a cover.

Oh, okay.

Fuck, too many things.

Okay.

I go over to the cake.

I get a fistful.

I start eating it out of my hands.

It's got cure wounds in it because I knew that this, that this would happen.

That would get messy.

Just crying into my cake.

He's so

so good.

And I'm going to run down silver.

Oh, no.

You run down silver, turns around, sees you running after him.

You see, he goes, oh,

I'm sorry, are you leaving?

I'm sorry, Sky, what's up?

Yeah, no, yum.

Oh, I um

was this forward?

This was forward, right?

To like throw you a party.

This was the honestly the nicest thing in the.

I'm sorry, illuminated by barracks behind you.

You see a gondola of a gallothopters flying behind, and you can see there's sort of a deep hurt in

Silver's countenance.

Doesn't look like he's mad at you.

There's just a weird bit of hurt here.

You see, he goes, uh,

if you and Ame, I mean, I know that you have a lot of history with...

Oh, oh, no, no, that wasn't like that.

That was, Ame is a witch.

And apparently that means witch things can happen to her at strange moments.

And I'm going to grab his hand and kind of scoot around to the far side of the train just to show the blown out window and maybe if there's any evidence of like weird frost.

Yeah, let's roll a little luck check and see if there is.

Uh, there is a little bit of frost.

Yeah, he goes, oh.

So it was just a weird witch thing, and we didn't want to.

I wasn't trying to blow up her spot.

Uh, and we're

But maybe the story.

What do you mean a weird witch thing?

Oh, uh,

a familiar for another witch decided to speak with her now that she's awake again.

So we just was kind of stalling for time.

Another familiar got

within the walls of the citadel?

Yes, actually.

Is she

okay?

Huh?

They're gone.

They conveyed a message and left.

But you're right.

That is strange.

That is strange.

Um,

tier list.

Uh, so that's what that was.

I really appreciate that you threw me this party, it's really kind, and I don't want to put any weird pressure on whatever this is, but I do like you a lot, and I am deeply grateful and happy.

Tonight's been a very nice night.

He leans in and gives you a kiss.

Sorry to storm off like that.

I got scared

because

my reaction

to thinking that you were with someone else was stronger than I was ready to admit.

Oh, that's nice.

Um,

I'm not with anyone else, and I don't really want to.

Be

we can get into that later.

Uh, fun other thing.

Have you seen Saber anywhere?

He would have had to be at your ceremony, wasn't he?

He's like, that's the last time I saw him, and apparently he's MIA.

Okay,

interesting.

Uh, Saber's my archmage, or you know, he's the whole, he's Gavril's archmage.

So let me run that down and see.

See what can be seen.

Um,

I'm gonna head out, but uh

do you think Ame is going to be crashing with you tonight or somewhere else?

How about I come to you?

Great.

Great.

He gives you another kiss, and

you see he walks off towards the edge of the platform and casts fly on himself and takes up into the Erian.

It's the hottest thing in the whole world.

I cannot do better.

I can't.

We're back, baby.

And I come over to sad Ahme eating cake.

Yeah, I'm actually standing in the doorway of

the bar, of the beer garden,

cake on my hands,

sniffling and like watching.

Hey, bud, you good?

Yeah,

I just wasn't...

I wasn't ready.

I've been trying my whole life for this.

And what if I said something wrong?

And

sorry to, well, it seems like I didn't, you know, it's it's fine.

Seems like this was for the best and now he uh he knows

I just want to give Ame a huge hug.

Oh, yeah, and I uh throw my

cake covered hands around you

You smell nice.

Oh,

it's the cake

Hey You're the best witch I've ever met.

I'm the only witch you've ever met.

No, I met Grandmother Ren.

Okay, well now you're just being hyperbolic.

No.

No, I think I said what I mean.

You're doing great.

Okay,

thank you.

You're doing great.

And I think you could do...

Better.

Okay, we can't get into that right now.

We gotta take the W.

Ursulan, you see,

yeah, the fox comes back out of the bathroom.

You've had this

wild experience in the bathroom here.

You celebrate Subi for the rest of the night.

Eventually, Ahmed, you arrive back at Suvi's quarters with the fox.

Ursulan, you...

Where do you think Ursulan ends up that night?

I think Ursulan is going to go train.

I think since Steele has suggested there's a chance for him to go home, he's been training harder and more

at more irregular times.

So I think he says he's going to go grab a bite to eat, but then heads to train.

You find a space under the moonlight.

As you do,

you find sort of the ruins of that chair.

And you can find, I think, a couple lengths of rope.

There's like some netting they put up at certain points out here on the court.

And you can just find some of that and tie it around your wrist and get like a little makeshift wooden shield, start doing drills again.

And as you do so, you look up at the sky and see those stars up there and wonder who might be watching.

You see

a constellation in the stars.

One

that is

named after your father.

who you have spent probably quite a long time

not thinking about.

But your thoughts do go back to him for a time as you train under the light of his constellation.

Ame.

We come back to you

and you're lying down in Suvi's incredibly comfortable bed.

The fox snuggled up.

He goes, Well, that was really exciting.

Your coven reached out to you and you got to let them know that.

I wasn't ready yeah

oh god but

hey what if i made a mistake what if i said the wrong thing i don't even remember like

oh

thanks for your help back there

well

i'm happy to help but think about it this way they might not be mad that you're not ready they might like that you're not ready because it means they can push you around.

Yeah, no, I'm I know.

That's what I'm scared of is

I'm not scared of getting in trouble with them.

I'm scared that I'm not ready for them.

Okay.

Well,

you don't have an apprentice, so you could quit and then there'd be no witch of the world's heart and you wouldn't have to deal with it.

You could run away.

I can't do that.

All right, well, I've had two ideas, so

nobody could ask for anything more of you, buddy.

And he scratches tummy, he rolls over on his back and is immediately asleep.

I, um,

there's a

shawl there, a purple shawl of Grandmother Wren's that Suvi had uh taken from the cottage when she left and is now on on her uh

on her bed.

And I

pull that over me

and I

breathe it in.

It's

warm and musty, and

it smells a little bit of the cottage, a little bit like

home

of Grandma Wren.

But I can also smell the incense in it,

like it's been there

for somebody else to hug.

You

smell your home as you fade to sleep.

The weight

of responsibility on your shoulders, but also the comfort of Wren's shawl.

Suvi, you finished celebrating.

Do you go to, and do you go to Silver's at the end of the night?

Yeah.

I do.

But I think there is a little bit of

taking the long way or just getting a little distracted and kind of wishing I had a little more time to speak to Ame.

And I think about her a lot on the way to Silver's.

You open the door with the key that Silver gave you.

You walk into an apartment decorated with a wall containing wands and staves of combat, embossed with gold and brass.

You see a hanging censer of smoke.

And you see Silver with a pack on his shoulder,

tear lines on his face, holding a scroll.

What's going on?

Sky,

the garrison at Fort Kieran has fallen.

No.

I need to leave tonight.

No.

And that's all for this episode of the Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild War.

No!

How are we going to be fucking if Silver's not here?

That was Lou Wilson as Ursulan, Erika Ishii as Ahme, Abria Iyengar as Suvi, and Brennan Lee Mulligan as Everyone and Everything Else.

Worlds Beyond Number is edited, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse with additional sound design from Michael Gelfie Studios.

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